


Camp Cyberlife: A Different Perspective

by KarinaMay



Category: Detroit: Evolution
Genre: F/F, Fluff, I have no reasonable explanation for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24734983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarinaMay/pseuds/KarinaMay
Summary: North has been a counselor at Camp Cyberlife from the start, but this year she's kind of nervous to go back. It might have something to do with one of the new counselors - a gorgeous android girl with cheekbones for days - but it's not like North would ever admit it.It's Ada's first year as a counselor, and she's nervous for many reasons, the main one being she's still learning to deal with all these damn emotions.- This is a look into the Adanorth timeline for my Reed900 fic Camp Cyberlife (Anatomy)
Relationships: Ada (Detroit: Evolution)/North (Detroit: Become Human), Ada/North
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Camp Cyberlife: A Different Perspective

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PrepSchoolAda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrepSchoolAda/gifts).



> Dedicated to Jo (prepschoolada) once again because it's Adanorth and you sorta got to at this point tbh. Also, again, this makes absolutely no sense with the canon, whether that's D:BH or D:E

North had been a counselor at Camp Cyberlife from the start, roped into the project by Markus and Josh. She’d been apprehensive about the project, to say the least. She’d felt nothing but contempt for humans at the time, and had had no desire to change her perspective. But at the time, Markus, Josh and Simon had been her only real friends, and the thought of them going away the entire summer, leaving her to fend for herself in the city, had secretly scared her more. 

North hadn’t expected at all that the camp would ultimately become the place where she would let learn to let go of her anger and start having fun for the first time since she’d woken up. It was by the side of Mystic Lake that North made friends for the first time, not out of loneliness or a shared cause, but because of shared interests and experiences. She still had a more difficult time warming up to new human adults, but also found she had little to no trouble taking care of the human kids. They were still without prejudice, and at the end of each summer North had been just as emotional about saying goodbye to them as the android kids in her charge. 

North  _ missed  _ the quaint little cabin village on the lakeside every month she wasn’t there. By the time it turned to May, she’d be aching to go back. However, this year she felt nervous again for the first time since the starting year. 

It wasn’t that she was worried it was going to be awkward, going back. She and Markus had broken up at the end of last summer, but they’d maintained contact all year, which only proved the fact that they’d always been better at being friends than being lovers. No, she wasn’t really worried about Markus at all. 

She’d also been paired up with the same co-counselor as the past three years - the frankly wonderful Valerie, who jokingly called herself North’s ‘first human friend’ - so she didn’t have to worry about getting used to a new human in close proximity either. 

No, North’s reason for being nervous was far more ridiculous and made absolutely no sense. 

As Markus did every year, he’d sent the list of counselors around to North in advance, so she could see who she’d be working with. It was one of the small things he did to comfort her in the face of the unknown, and she still appreciated it after all these years. Scanning through the list she’s seen mostly familiar faces, and a few new ones. One of them had stood out to her. 

One of the new faces on the list of android counselors had taken her breath away. She was listed as “Ada, RK100” - a model number North had never heard of before - and she was stunning. She had pale blond hair, piercing eyes, and cheekbones for days. North hadn’t been able to get the picture out of her head, and had scrolled back through the list to look at it again more than once. It was ridiculous. 

* * *

Ada was tapping her fingers on her leg. It was something she’d picked up well before deviancy, something to keep her fingers occupied while processing information, but since she’d woken up it had become more of a nervous tic. She was on a bus to the town Lake, near Mystic Lake - humans really were tragically bad at naming things - from where she’d have to walk for about 20 more minutes to get to Camp Cyberlife. When she’d seen the advertisement to become counselor at the camp, Ada had jumped at the opportunity. Taking care of human and android kids seemed the perfect chance to make up for past mistakes, and maybe learning what it was that humans valued so much about ‘teamwork’. 

Now she was nearly there, she wasn’t so sure. Ada hadn’t been designed with a caring or altruistic program. She was still learning how to deal with empathy on a daily basis, fluctuating between feeling others’ emotions so much it crippled her, and not understanding them at all. How was she supposed to care for several tiny balls of emotion when she didn’t really know how to deal with them herself? 

Ada was questioning her decision to sign up during her walk down to the camp. As unsure as she felt of herself now, it was way too late to back out. She was just going to have to deal with whatever this summer had in store for her. 

She turned up to the camp well in time for the introductory speech and found a place to sit in the dining hall on one of the tables that had been shoved to against the wall to make room for more people. There was a small crowd already inside, made up of both humans and androids, who were casually chatting together. Most of them seemed to already know each other, bot Ada spotted a couple of other people who were keeping to themselves a bit. It made her feel slightly better that she wasn’t the only one who was nervous to be there for the first time. 

She scanned the crowd and her eyes landed on the face of a girl standing near the small raised podium. It was a very pretty face, with large brown eyes and a very cute nose, surrounded by a cascade of long auburn hair that was kept in place by a grey beanie. She looked relaxed, chatting to a guy whose back was turned to Ada. As if she knew Ada had been looking, the girl suddenly looked right at her. Ada felt her insides heat up. Her thirium pump seemed to be working overtime and Ada quickly looked away. 

* * *

North had been talking to Markus about one of her former camp kids, Danny, to make sure everything had been taken care of for him, when she’d felt someone looking at her. When she’d looked around to find the person staring, she’d spotted Ada. She was even more gorgeous in person, and North completely lost her train of thought. Ada had looked away immediately when North had looked her way, but now North was the one doing the staring.

“Hello, earth to North,” Markus voice broke through.

North blinked and looked back at him. “Right, sorry, you were saying?” 

Markus smiled. “Just that everything regarding Danny has carefully been taken care of. He’s sorted into a group with two new counselors, but I think that might actually be better in this case, to avoid accidental slip-ups. And of course I will keep an extra eye out, as I’m sure you will, too.”

North nodded. “Thanks, Markus.” 

“Any time, North,” Markus said, smiling. “Anyway, duty calls. I’ll see you later.”

North nodded and as Markus walked away, she looked back through the crowd at Ada. She was still sitting alone, and North contemplated whether she should walk up and introduce herself. It wouldn’t be a strange thing to do, considering she was a veteran, and welcoming new counselors was something that was pretty much required in her position, but she was worried she might lose her ability to have a normal conversation. Then again, they were going to be at this camp together for eight weeks, and they were going to have to talk sooner or later. 

North walked up to Ada, feigning confidence and sat down on the table next to her. “Hi, I’m North. You must be one of the newbies.” 

Ada nodded, looking slightly startled. “Yes - I - yes, my name is Ada.” 

“I know,” North said, immediately realizing how weird that sounded. “Sorry, I mean, I saw your picture on the list of counselors. Markus sends it to me every year so I can see I can see who are going to be there. I’m generally not great with new people. As I’m sure you can tell.” 

Well, this was going  _ great _ . 

Ada let out a surprised laugh. “Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re doing better than me. I was kind of planning on just sitting here by myself for as long as possible.” 

“Leaving someone like you to sit alone would be a crime,” North said. 

She’d actually just said that. Out loud. Fantastic. 

“‘Someone like me’?” Ada asked.

North wished she could turn invisible. “I just meant-”

“North!” 

North had never been more relieved to see Valerie. She was smiling brightly, and pulled North into a tight hug. 

“I’ve missed you,” Valerie said. “How’ve you been? I heard about Markus.” 

“Of course you did,” North said. She hadn’t been looking forward to talking about the break up, about going from ‘Markus’ girlfriend’ to ‘Markus’ ex’, but the change of subject was welcome right now. “We’re all good. We’re still friends. What about you, have you heard anything from Tina?” 

“Shhh! Quiet!” Valerie insisted, glancing around. She suddenly seemed to notice Ada for the first time. “Oh god, I’m sorry, you must think I’m terribly rude. My name is Valerie.”

“I’m Ada,” Ada said, shaking Valerie’s extended hand. “Who’s Tina?” 

Valerie groaned. “I don’t want to talk about this right nooooow.”

North grinned. “Tina’s one of the other returning counselors. In fact, I think she’s  _ your  _ co-counselor this year, Ada. Valerie has had a  _ slight _ crush on her for like the past two years.”

“Shut up, North,” Valerie said, glancing over at the door. 

North followed her gaze and watched as Tina walked in, followed by a scruffy, tired looking guy. Just as they found a place by the back wall, Markus started talking. 

“Who’s that?” Valerie whispered to North, nodding slightly in the direction of Tina and her unfamiliar friend. 

“Gavin Reed,” North remembered, after a second of scanning through the file saved to her memory. “She recommended him.” 

“Fuck me,” Valerie sighed. 

North snorted. 

* * *

Ada had gone from feeling generally nervous to feeling specifically jittery when North had sat down next to her. She was suddenly extra aware of every part of her body, trying to sit extra still, making sure she didn’t accidentally bump her leg against North, and trying even harder to regulate the rapid thumping of her thirium pump. It wasn’t really working. 

She tried to concentrate on Markus’ speech, but she couldn’t really focus on what he was saying. Apparently he’d been with North in the past. An unfamiliar feeling crept through Ada’s chest and she fought off the strange impulse to throw something at him. 

When he was done talking, Ada’s full attention returned to the table where North and Valerie had started chatting happily about this years’ camp activities. They were soon joined by Tina, who was indeed to be Ada’s co-counselor, and slowly but surely Ada settled into the casual conversation. Ada hadn’t had much contact with humans at all before today, but now that she was here, it appeared to be less daunting than she’d expected. As it turned out, humans talked about a lot of the same things as androids did. Since Ada was new, they took a moment to introduce themselves. Ada listened intently while North talked about being a self defence teacher, about dancing being her favourite hobby, and about how she’d been at Camp Cyberlife from the start. 

Ada, in return, talked about how she was taking night classes criminology, to learn more about the human part of the study, the part she couldn’t just download into her systems, while she worked a day job as a library monitor. Ada didn’t offer any information about what she’d done before deviancy, which seemed easier since North hadn’t either, but she was still grateful none of them asked about it either. 

* * *

It took three days for North to admit to herself she was rapidly developing a pretty much disastrous crush on Ada. During the day she managed to keep her mind occupied with the kids, but the evenings were a problem. Ada had easily become part of the existing friend group North hung out with, and North was having a hard time concentrating on anything other than her. Which was apparently obvious to everyone  _ but  _ Ada herself. 

“Shut  _ up, _ Val,” North said for the millionth time while Valerie went off about North’s not-so-subtle pining. 

“Oh, no, you’re going to get it,” Valerie replied. “You spent the last two summers making fun of me and my crush on Tina. It’s your turn now.” 

“I hate you,” North muttered, throwing a pebble into the lake.

“Oh, come on North,” Valerie said, nudging her shoulder. “What’s the problem anyway? It’s not like you were shy about it back when you and Markus were together. What’s the problem?”

“I don’t know!” North answered, exasperated. “It feels different this time! Every time I see her I completely forget how to act like a person. I want to talk to her all the time, but when I do I don’t know what to say and I just feel like an idiot.” 

“Maybe it’s real this time?” Valerie offered. “I mean, you said you and Markus got together more because of the situation than actual compatibility, that you’re way better as friends anyway. Maybe you and Ada are better as  _ not  _ friends? I know that might be scary, but North, you’re brave as shit. You should just go talk to her.” 

“Maybe you’re right,” North said. She stood up and threw another decisive pebble into the lake. 

“Where are you going?” Valerie asked. 

“To talk to Ada.” 

“Right now?”    
  


“Right now.”

* * *

North found Ada by the campfire. When she saw her, North stopped in her tracks and felt her thirium pump stutter. She shook her head.  _ Come on North, you  _ are  _ brave, you don’t back away from anything.  _ She walked over to Ada, who smiled when she saw North approach.

“Hello North,” Ada said.

“Hey Ada,” North said. “Can I talk to you for a second? Over there?” 

Ada gave her a curious look and nodded. They walked away from the busy campfire and when North felt they were a safe distance away from everyone else, she turned to face Ada. 

“Listen, Ada,” North started. “I’m not very good at being subtle - as you may have noticed - so I might as well just tell you. I know we’ve only known each other for a couple of days, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I know it’s sort of ridiculous but I  _ really  _ like you, Ada.” 

Ada seemed to be processing what North had said, and North suddenly regretted her decision of confessing her feelings. 

“Anyway, you probably don’t feel the same, but I just needed to get it off my chest,” North said. “So I guess I’ll be going now.” 

She was about to turn away when Ada grabbed her hand. 

“North, wait,” Ada said. 

North turned back around, trying not to focus too much on Ada’s hand in hers. 

“I don’t really know how to do this,” Ada said slowly. “I’ve never felt anything like this before. I get all warm inside when I see you and I miss you when you’re gone, even if it’s only been five minutes. It  _ is  _ ridiculous and I don’t know how anyone deals with this. But I think it means I  _ really  _ like you, too?”

“North! There you are!” 

North and Ada let go of each others’ hands quickly and North turned around to see Gavin walking up to them. She silently cursed him in every language in her database, while still trying to process what Ada had just said to her. 

“North, it’s Danny,” Gavin said. He seemed slightly out of breath, and when he got close North suddenly recognized the faint scent of thirium on him and her mind snapped into focus.

“What happened?” North asked. 

“One of your girls recognized him from last year,” Gavin explained. “Apparently she felt it was necessary to push him onto the ground for that. He came to me bleeding. I fixed him up, but I think you should maybe talk to Mara about this.”    
  
“Mara, huh?” North asked, as anger slowly flooded through her system. “Yes, I think I should go talk to her.”

Gavin nodded and glanced between North and Ada. “I’ll go back to Danny, make sure he’s doing okay now.”

He walked away and North turned back to Ada. “I gotta go deal with this. Can you meet me at the dock later?” 

Ada nodded and North ran off to go and find the bully. 

* * *

Adrenaline was still pumping through Ada’s system when she made her way down to the dock. She could still hardly believe that North had said she liked her. It seemed impossible; Ada was unsure there was much about her that was actually likeable. Apparently North thought differently. 

Ada was sitting on the edge of the dock, dangling her feet in the water when North showed up a little while later. North kicked off her sandals and sat down next to her, also hanging her feet in the lake. She didn’t say anything. Ada was once again hyper aware of their proximity. 

“So,” said North, after a while. “You like me back, huh?” 

“I guess so,” Ada replied, smiling. 

North grinned. “Good, that’s good.” 

Ada reached for North’s hand again, lacing their fingers together. It happened so fast it came almost as a shock, Ada’s skin retracting to interface without her wanting it to. She looked down to their interlaced fingers just in time to see the same happening to North before her mind was suddenly flooded with unfamiliar images. It took Ada a second to figure out they were North’s memories.

North’s first time at Camp Cyberlife, and how out of place she’d felt. North becoming friends with Valerie, North taking care of a crying Danny. North meeting Markus in her darkest hour. North in a dimly lit room, hands around a human man’s throat, squeezing the light out of his eyes. 

Ada was pulled out of the interface as abruptly as she’d been pulled in, and she found North staring back at her wide-eyed. 

“I’m sorry,” North stammered. “I didn’t mean to-”

“Neither did I-” 

“I’m  _ so  _ sorry,” North said quietly, “if you didn’t want me to see that. And even more sorry for everything you’ve been through. That must’ve been terrible.” 

Ada bit her lip, unsure what to say. 

“A lot of us went through some horrible things before we turned,” North said. “As I’m sure you just saw as well. But that’s not who we are anymore.” 

“I never told anyone,” Ada whispered. 

North wrapped an arm around Ada’s shoulder, pulling her close. “That’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it to me either, if you don’t want to. But for what it’s worth, it  _ wasn’t _ your fault. And I think you might need to hear this too.” 

North put her hand on Ada’s cheek, turning her face to look straight into Ada’s eyes. 

“I forgive you,” North said quietly. 

It didn’t make sense - North didn’t have anything to do with what had happened - but still, Ada felt as if a weight was lifted from her shoulders. A weight she hadn’t known she’d been carrying. 

She leaned forward hesitantly, allowing North to decide whether she would meet her halfway. North smiled, recognizing the silent question and leaned in, pressing her lips against Ada’s softly. They seemed to fit together perfectly, as if they were made for each other, and Ada wrapped her arms around North to pull her even closer. 

When they eventually broke apart, Ada felt slightly lightheaded. 

“I can actually hear your thirium pump,” Ada said.

“Yeah, I can hear yours, too,” North replied. “It’s still ridiculous.” 

Ada laughed. “It really is.” 

North grabbed Ada’s hand again, and leaned her head on her shoulder. “We’ll be ridiculous together, then.”

**Author's Note:**

> Idk I just decided that three days were all North and Ada needed to love each other forever don't @ me. 
> 
> -X


End file.
